Double Bubble works best. I usually make a small level mud screed after mudding my walls. That gives me a level ledge to set my first row on and also gives me a level perimeter ledge for mudding my floor. But, in your case I would screw in the ledger board in place of the bottom row making sure I hit the studs. If a pan liner is used, we may go up a row or two to avoid holes in the liner. Then tile the whole wall. On a tub surround I would set the ledger boards and tile all three walls then cut in against the tub the next day. It's different for a DIY'ers, we don't have time to let the bottom row set before tiling up the wall.

I'm here to set tile and chew bubble gum and I'm all out of bubble gum.

Since it's a long weekend and I've got time, I think I'll set as many rows up from the ledger as I can and leave the ledger in place until the next day at least.

There's a window in that wall and the top of the opening cuts slightly into the top row of 12" tile. So there's nothing below part of that row and just the ceiling above it so I can't rest it on tiles beneath or tape it to tiles above. Is there a way to secure those tiles while they set? My best idea is spanning the window opening with a piece of aluminum angle and propping the tiles up on that.

If you feel like your ledger board supports are solid and won't shift, start stacking those 12X12's, but I'd still be a bit concerned about it "rolling" away from the wall once some weight is on it.

Regardless, I would lay your longest level across each row you stack. Although my 12X24's are rectified and very consistent, they aren't perfect. Laying my 6.5' level atop each row allowed me to tweak any that needed to be tweaked with wedges.

As for the window - gotta pic?

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Dan
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If I recall correctly my memory is excellent, but my ability to access it is intermittent.

I don't think the ledger will roll away. The ProLite is doing a good job holding things to the wall. The tiles slide down some but don't pull away from the wall so the pressure is straight down. A lot of the weight is held up by the mortar too. Doesn't look like I can manage more than 10 tiles in one go anyway, takes me too long to work them into the mortar so they're lined up depth-wise, so there probably won't be more than 2 rows over that board for a while.

Dan can correct me but I think he is talking about the ledger board pulling away from the wall at the bottom. This sometimes happens when you add more weight, the supports under the board slide on the tub. Screws into the studs will keep this from happening.

The 2x4 the ledger rests on the flat parts of the tubs at either end. It's pretty stable. Anyway, I only managed to get one row up over it in a reasonable time.

What am I doing wrong? It takes me 2 hours to set 5 tiles. The time before that, I near the pot life limit of 4 hours and managed 10. I do go slow and try to get everything perfect but that's way too long. Burn mortar on the wall. load up a thick layer of mortar and comb out the notches, backbutter the tile, press the tile in, wiggle it into place until it's level with neighbors+level+plump+karmically copacetic. I check things with a spirit level and straight edge, and slide a horseshoe spacer over the gap back and forth (sharp corner side to tile). The sliding spacer can click but not too much and can't get stuck.

I'm already using a pretty big trowel, 1/4x1/2x1/4 u-notch, and I try to err on the side of too much. I'd rather have to spend more time working the tile in and cleaning up mortar oozing from the seams than have to pull it off and add more mortar. I keep a mallet handy but don't use it much, mostly just wiggling the tile.

Does it sound like I'm doing something wrong or just fiddling too much?

If it makes you feel any better, Paul, it took me about 6 hours to set only 20 linear feet of tile baseboard, though that did include cutting a bunch of tile.

But I don't guess it does.

You're process seems good, though if it were me I'd forgo burning a layer onto the wall. I think I'd also set an entire row, getting them close, and then use your level and straight edge to adjust them. I really like the hard plastic wedge spacers I bought, they're great for very tiny tweaking.

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Dan
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If I recall correctly my memory is excellent, but my ability to access it is intermittent.

Thanks. 20 tiles in 6 hours still has me beat. Although I go faster with smaller tiles. I set the 25 sq ft of plank floor in a total of 4 hours but that didn't come out so great.

What brand wedge and horseshoe spacers do you guys like? The brutus horseshoes I got are pretty good but the mold marks can be prominent. On the bright side, I can rummage around in the bin and find a slightly thicker/thinner one to tweak a seam when I need to.

If you have a raised area on a wall, can you grind the back of a tile to clear it and keep that tile in plane with its neighbors? These are 12x12 porcelain tiles 3/8" thick. I zigged where I should have zagged and ended up with a tile sitting on a thin layer of mortar next to a raised area (fabric embedded in waterproofing and mortar+mesh at CBU corners). The raised area already has tiles to one side and below so if I tilt a tile up onto the hump, it's bound to get lippage somewhere.

I've got 3 12"x12" tiles to set between the ceiling and top of the window. 2 of them are supported along 1/3 of the bottom but the one in the middle is above empty space.
What's a good way to support the tiles while the mortar sets? I've got some ideas but I'm probably overthinking it.